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The
Families for Orphans Coalition
is a group of nonprofit
organizations, adoptive parents
and individuals associated with
Coalition member organizations
working to attract attention and
resources to the plight of
millions of orphans growing up
without permanent families
worldwide. By combining forces
we hope to have legislation
introduced and passed called The
Families for Orphans Act. This
Act provides for a diplomatic
authority and technical and
coordinating capacity within the
United States Department of
State to help countries
worldwide develop policies and
capacity to keep children in
their birth families whenever
possible and move orphans and
other children without parental
care into permanent families.
The Families for Orphans
Coalition has united many
organizations with experience
working in countries to help
orphans. Several members grew
out of a working group which
convened in August 2007 to
collaborate on strategies for
providing a holistic model for
family preservation and
permanent family care. As this
practice-focused group focused
on the task at hand it was clear
that for any efforts to be
successful, U.S. foreign policy
needed to support the efforts.
It had become apparent to many
that the United States Agency
for International Development
did not have permanent family
care as a priority, nor was it
likely to become a
 priority.
Serendipitously, at the same
time several other orphan
advocates had become vocal on
Capitol Hill about the same challenges within the AID
community and issues that needed
to change for greater support of
permanent family-based care for
orphans. Seeking clarity,
Members of Congress contacted
The Congressional Coalition on
Adoption Institute, who convened
a meeting of the involved
organizations to explore
collaboration. The organizations
agreed to work together and
collaboratively drafted the
Families for Orphans Act of
2009.
Collaborating
Organizations:
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The Executive Committee of
the Families for Orphans
Coalition includes:
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Jane Aronson, Worldwide
Orphan Foundation,
orphandoctor@aol.com
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Terry Baugh, Kidsave,
terry@kidsave.org
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Thomas DiFilipo, Joint
Council on International
Children’s Services,
tdifilipo@jcics.org
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Chuck Johnson, National
Council for Adoption,
cjohnson@adoptioncouncil.org
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McLane Layton, EACH --
Equality for Adopted
Children,
mclane@equalityforadoptedchildren.org
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Brian Luwis, The Institute
for Orphan Advocacy,
brian.luwis@awaa.org
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Judith Rycus, The Institute
for Human Services/The
Institute for Human
Services,
JSRycus@aol.com
Additional organizations are
encouraged to endorse the
legislation.
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